HOW TO tune your Windows PC

There are numerous background services in Windows that get started while you boot up. They jostle for resources and depending on the computer configuration they may impede the speed of your own applications.

I have found that turning off some unwanted background services speeds up performance fairly if not significantly. You however need to understand what the background services do, the impact of turning them off and prepare for any risks before setting forth on the tuning exercise.

I found the notes on tweaking the services by ElderGeek & BlackViper useful. They apply to Windows XP but could be applicable for other Windows versions as well.

BlackViper classifies the configuration based on usage type & includes the following:

"SAFE" - configuration that 95% of the people will be able to use with little or no side effects
Tweaked - power user setup
Bare Bones - super geek setup